La Corte di Maggiano La Spezia

... a bit tipsy. The walk up to our hostel didn't seem so daunting that night. It was a great ending to our day in Cinque Terre. We visited four out of five cities in one day! A quick repack and postcard writing and I was off to bed. An early morning tomorrow to make the train to Venice. From the Italian coast on the Mediterranean to the Adriatic, spanning the width of the country from west to east in one day. Hoping my planning will pay off but I know better by now to expect the unexpected.

... ll see how it goes. <br><br>Tomorrow I am off to Milan, and kindly enough staying with a friend of the women who owned the horse place I worked at. Can't beat free, and many of the people that I met there vouched for him so, I'm off to another city. I'm hoping to make Milan, Verona and Venice by the weekend so I can go to Parma and see my cousin on the weekend. Wish me Luck!<br><br>Missing you all!<br>Benita<br><br><br>

... from the area. <br><br>Originally, the only way to get to and from these little villages was by small fishing boats or an ancient foot path, which follows the coast connecting all five. Now, the path is well worn, and between a few of the towns, a paved path wide enough for locals tiny three-wheeled trucks to make some deliveries. There's now a boat that picks up and ...

<br> Tuscan Riviera Portovenere<br> Had seen it on Getaway and looked very pretty.. Found a hotel with sea views and have spent 2 nights here resting , climbing around local castles&#8230; eating sleeping and watching the boats go in and out&#8230; not much English here but we are not hungry or thirsty so all going well&#8230;.<br> Tomorrow we are off to the South of France.. 3 nights planned in Nice.. Really looking forward to it but have loved Italy&#8230;

... park and a UNESCO world heritage site. It's estimated that the terraces built into the hillsides to support the community crops utilize walls that, if stretched out, would extend 12000 kilometers. Having been there, I believe them. The bright and distinct colorings on the buildings facing the ocean are there in part to help the fisherman find their way back to the right place. The 'stacked houses' building style was used ...

... staying in Torano a small town, perched in the mountains where marble is mined. <br><br>This will now be our home for the next couple of months. <br><br>As we aren't technically travelling at the moment we are temporarily suspending our blog, but will start up another blog about our lives in Tuscany. <br><br>Happy reading for now, and we hope you enjoy the winter or summer where ever you are. <br>

... as we were actually getting ash landing on us as we walked around.<br> We caught the train to number 5 and planned to have some lunch then take the train to number 4 before our snorkel trip. We found a nice outdoor restaurant overlooking the water were we had a fairly economical lunch considering where we were. We shared some bruschetta and a seafood salad and a couple of glasses of wine each which came to a total of 28 euro. Very good for Italy!<br> It was very relaxing just sitting ...

... I opted to take a weekend off to relax. Therefore Friday night I watched a film with Roberto (who didn't go out with his brothers because he had school the next day). Saturday: Relax!!! Sunday: We went to the Fall Out Boy concert in Milan. For those of you that know me, Fall Out Boy is pretty much my favourite music group! The tickets were around 30 &euro; (Euro) and it was definitely worth it!. Simone and Matteo drove down to the concert, along with some ...

... I would have missed out. The last trek, between towns four and five is at least two hours, whereas between one and two is twenty minutes. Randomly ran into Someone who I haven´t seen since I first got to Rome which was a cool thing. The cinque terre is definitely the place to spend the day in one or two towns just lying on the beach and relaxing.

... jumped onto the first train that came by. All the towns are tiny and are made up of brightly colored boxes that sit together precariously along the water and rocks. You can spot one town from the next, but judging how close or far the next one is seems nearly impossible (as we learned while hiking). Starting in the town of Riomaggiore, we walked along the easily strollable path (Via della Amore) that led to Manarola, a town with several spots to ...